NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is held every November. It’s a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days (or 1,667 per day). Writers and wanna-be writers come together with a common goal to write novels, short stories, memoirs, whatever it is they’ve been putting off or need a push to get started. This year I decided I would document my daily writing practice as I strive to finish a draft of a novel I’ve been taking far too long on.
Day 23
Words Written: 1,690
Total Word Count: 38,413
Goal: 50,000
Well I’ve stayed on track for 4 days in a show. I’ve written over the goal for more than that but I was still playing catch up. It feels good to be able to write a set number of words, and a really doable number, and feel good about it after. I’ve said before that even on the days I was able to write 2000+ words I still felt like I wasn’t doing enough because I was still below the line. So it feels good that I’ve been able to stay on track for a good number of days.
As Thanksgiving gets closer I do think about how it might be difficult to stay on track that day but because I only need to write the 1666 words I should be able to do it easily way before I even have to start thinking about the people coming over or the food I’ll make that day.
I’m still feeling strong and the end of the month really is closing in. I’m feeling positive about it and I’m already starting to think about December and what I plan on doing to continue this momentum. I definitely think I need to cut back a little bit, just to give myself a break. But I need to make sure it’s a really structure break. I can see myself taking a break that somehow lasts the entire month of December and then because I’m so out of the project it takes me a really long time to get back into it in the new year and by then the momentum has been completely lost.
I’ll keep thinking about what I should do and in the meantime keep writing.
Until tomorrow,
-Mackenzie
